It is a great pleasure to see ‘The Spring’ being made accessible and beautified.
It is a great pleasure to see ‘The Spring’ being made accessible and beautified.
In times past, whenever we drove by, my husband would always check to see if the water was flowing out of the pipe. It always was and has done so faithfully ever since the British Army Engineers trapped the water from the hillside to take it down the valley, first to a stone built reservoir and then by a stone furrow into Fort England. These early means of channelling water can still be seen.
In Europe, springs are beautified with stones, ferns, sometimes a statue and certainly a chained drinking cup for wayfarers. There springs are seen as a Christian Spiritual Symbol for our lives.
In the words of Jesus when he spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well: whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:13, 14.
After my husband died, I wanted to make the spring like ones in Europe, instead of the muddy water hole that it was then.
In 2004, with Barney Kepe’s help, we gathered rocks and concrete slabs and surrounded the pipe to protect the fragile water-saturated soil. We put in steps and built up the pathway. Unfortunately people hunting for crabs would move the rocks.
Over the years we have made structural changes as needed, such as removing the steps we put in down the steep bank, as cars stopping there were becoming a road hazard.
We put in pipes under the pathways to carry away ground water. The spring has always been used by passers by and by local road runners, but as soon as we began work there, people started to come to collect water in cans and bottles.
The steps and the contour path were much appreciated, and we soon had to make brick pathways because of the very muddy conditions which arose every time it rained.
The trickle of people coming to collect water turned into a deluge in November 2006, when there was a complete breakdown of clean water in Grahamstown's taps, for nearly a week.
There were queues of people day and night collecting drinkable water. This put huge pressure on the environs of the spring, as well as the possibility of a road accident with so many cars coming and going.
The Kowie Catchment Campaign (KCC) approached Kevin Bates for a solution to the problems, as the existing infrastructure put in place by myself and Barney was not coping with the many people coming daily to collect water.
There were meetings on site with people from many different spheres: Councillors, Traffic Department Officers, The Ratepayers Association, FairBairn Game Reserve owner, The Director of Parks and Recreation, Rhodes University, The KCC and the Albany Roads Department.
Ideas were put forward, plans were made and money was made available. It is that money which is presently being used to make the spring beautiful and accessible to everyone. I have always asked those collecting the water where they have come from.
There are ladies who walk from Joza to collect the water to put in the feeding bottles of infants. There are people from Port Alfred who pass by regularly and make a point of collecting water.
Passing tourists have been quick to spot the activity around the spring and to stop to fill up an empty bottle.
There are the many businesses, B&Bs and Government Offices in Grahamstown who collect water to fill their water coolers. They include Telkom, the Roads-, Police-, Traffic- Departments, and many others.
Barney and I have been so thrilled to be a part of this stream of people collecting life giving water.
We are regularly asked if the water is good. Thanks to M. Sinchembe and W.N. Ellery of Rhodes University who did a case study of the spring, I can say a resounding: yes.
Thanks must go to Margaret Mardon of Working for Water who saw to the removal of coppiced gum trees in the wet area, and to others who have contributed bricks and paving slabs (some of which have since unfortunately been stolen). Thanks also to the man who cut the grass with his weed-eater; the person who put in the rubbish bin, and to the Albany Roads Department who put in road signs and red lines on the road.
On the other hand, no thanks to those who clear the rubbish out of their cars whilst waiting, or simply distribute refuse with no thought to a clean environment.
No thanks to those men who wee at the spring or across the road in full view of learners in the FairBairn Game Reserve.
And no thanks to those who park dangerously, ignoring the road signs and red lines.
But praise be to God for his provision of easily accessible good water, when it was most needed in November 2006.
We all look forward to a beautified spring and may it long continue to bless all who use it.
